to bring to trial for their address of the 24th of December 1821, being interested in pushing matters to extremities, secretly stirred up the people to demand of the Prince a more explicit declaration in favour of the independence of the Brazils. The Prince acceded to their demands, and took as his emblem a green flower in a triangle, with the device " Independence or Death" attached to his arm. On his return to Rio Janeiro, he appeared at the opera with this emblem, which by a decree issued three days after, every Portuguese or Brazilian was ordered to wear, on pain of instantly quitting the country. The revolutionary intoxication was now approaching its height. On the 21st of September the Camara of Rio Janeiro issued a proclamation, informing the inhabitants and the troops quartered in the city, that, knowing it to be the unanimous wish of the people that his Royal Highness the Prince Regent should be proclaimed "Constitutional Emperor of the Brazils," they had commenced the necessary preparations for that important event, which would take place on the 12th of October, the anniversary of the birth of his Royal Highness. The Prince was placed in a most critical situation. The people of Rio Janeiro had assembled, and numerous groups surrounded the Palace, supplicating him to accept the Crown. He was already committed with the Cortes beyond all possibility of retreat or reconciliation, and he could look for no support from the authority of the King his father; while, on the other hand, the people loudly demanded independence, and, as the guarantee of that independence, that the Prince would mount the throne; his Councellors of State at the same time declaring that he ought to yield to necessity, and proclaim himself Constitutional Emperor. After considerable hesitation, the Brazils became an empire.

On the 12th of October, the day appointed for the coronation, the Prince and his wife repaired to the Cathedral, accompanied by a splendid cortége, and were saluted with salvos of artillery and shouts of joy from the people who thronged around him. Before receiving the Crown, he pronounced with a loud voice the following declaration: "By the advice of my Council of State, and of the General Procuradores, and after having examined the representations of the different corporations of the provinces, which have satisfied me that such is the general wish of the people, I accept the title of Constitutional Emperor and Perpetual Defender of the Brazils." This ceremony being over, the army saluted the new Emperor with a hundred discharges of cannon, and three rounds of musketry. On the following day a general amnesty was proclaimed in favour of deserters, the armorial bearings and national colours were changed, and at night the city was illuminated. The capital of the new empire was literally intoxicated with joy.

In the meanwhile, the new Emperor, fully aware of the difficulties with which he had to contend, neither despaired of himself nor of the safety of Brazil. He examined minutely all the departments of administration, and established in each the most rigid economy. He organised a new Ministry, and almost immediately removed several members of it, who he found were not sufficiently popular; he maintained a faithful observance of treaties, particularly of the commercial privileges formerly granted to England; and he ordered new levies of troops, and other preparations to ensure the submission of Bahia, and resist any enterprise the Portuguese might undertake against the peace and stability of the empire. But we must now return to the affairs of the mother country.

The Ordinary Cortes being convoked

for the 1st of December, the session was opened on that day by the Minister of the Interior, with a speech in name of the King, who was prevented from "assisting personally at that national solemnity," either by real or pretended indisposition. It is worthy of remark, that this document, though filled with felicitations on the completion of the labours of the Constituent Cortes, and with pompous anticipations of the benefits that were to result from those of the Ordinary Cortes, preserved a total and ominous silence on the internal situation of Portugal, and the affairs of the Brazils, of the new revolution of which, intelligence must, by this time, have been received. The rejoinder of the President, conceived in the usual style, complimented his Majesty on having "cemented the eternal bases of the throne, and laid the most solid foundations for public liberty." This was putting the best possible face upon matters; but unhappily these "eternal bases" and "solid foundations" were not able to support the superstructure reared upon them, which, in less than a year afterwards, vanished as if by enchantment, leaving not a trace or wreck behind.

The first affair submitted to the Cortes was the refusal of the Queen to take the oath to the constitution *. On the first notification, which was made to her by the Ministers on the 22d of November, that Princess had replied, in writing, that she had informed the King of her resolution to decline taking the oath, not from any sentiment of pride, or of hatred towards the Cortes, but because, having made it a point of conscience, during her whole life, not to take an oath in any

matter, she saw no reason, in the present instance, to infringe the rule upon which she had hitherto acted, and that she was prepared to submit to the penalties imposed by the law. On this refusal, his Majesty applied to the Council of State for their advice, and the result was a strong remonstrance to the Queen, expostulating with her on the futility of the scruples upon which she declined compliance with the law, urging her to reconsider the matter calmly and fully, and intimating that, after the term prescribed had elapsed, it would be impossible to prevent the law from taking its course. This communication was made to her Majesty on the 27th of November, and on the following day she transmitted to the Council a letter, dated from the Palace of Queluz, announcing, in the most decided language, her firm determination to abide by the resolution she had adopted, her readiness to submit to whatever the King should order in virtue of the law, and her intention of retiring to Cadiz as soon as the weather would permit; but requesting, at the same time, that as she was labouring under severe indisposition, and as neither the King nor the Government could wish her to die on the road, she might be permitted to retire with her two daughters to the Palace of Ramalhao till the season had become mild enough to enable her to quit the kingdom with safety. The Council having deliberated on this letter, decided, by a majority, that the request for delay should be submitted to the consideration of the Cortes; that the Queen was at liberty to choose the place of her residence out of the kingdom; but that she could not be permitted to carry a

long with her the two Infantas, her daughters.

On the 2d of December a frigate was in readiness to take her Majesty on board; but a consultation of physicians, held for the purpose of making a report on the state of her Majesty's health, gave it as their opinion, that her life would be in danger, if she was compelled to undertake a voyage at that season of the year. In the face of this declaration these humane constitutionalists did not indeed venture to ship off the sick and refractory Queen; but on the 4th two royal decrees were issued, depriving her of all her civil and political rights, and ordering her to retire to the Palace of Ramalhao, till her health should be so far re-established as to enable her to quit the kingdom. On the same day a letter from the Minister of the Interior announced to the Cortes the degradation of the Queen, and the resolutions which had been adopted in consequence of the report of the physicians. This, together with a number of documents connected with the affair, was referred to a committee, which, a few days after, made a report to the Chamber, stating, in substance, that the law having been so far enforced, and its complete execution only suspended on good and sufficient grounds, the affair did otherwise not fall under the jurisdiction of the Cortes, and that it was only necessary to insert in their journals that they had been duly informed of what had taken place. This report was unanimous ly approved of, and here the discussions connected with this disgraceful transaction terminated. The unhappy Queen, denied the consolation which she so much required in the society of her children, had previously set out for the place of her temporary exile, where, however, she continued till the revolution of the month of June 1823.

With regard to the finances, there were no positive data for fixing accu

rately the amount of the public debt, which, including the paper money in circulation, was vaguely estimated at 112,500,000 crusados, or about L. 15,233,750; while, according to the returns made to the Extraordinary Cortes, the public revenue had, from 1815 to 1819, averaged 9,758,940,000 reis, or about L.2,541,390 for Portugal and Brazil. But after the revolution it fell off so suddenly that the deficit for 1821amounted to 1,200,000,000 reis, or L.312,500. The expenditure of the current year was estimated at 8,839,000,000 reis, and the income at only 7,232,000,000 reis, leaving a deficit of 1,607,000,000 reis, or about L.413,000 produced by the non-receipt of the usual revenue from beyond sea. If to this, therefore, we add the deficits of the former years, amounting to L.1,458,333, the whole sum to be provided for was L.1,871,333. this situation an attempt was made to negociate a loan for 10,000,000 crusados; but foreign capitalists had no confidence in the stability of the present system, and the nation, already exhausted, was abandoned to its own re

sources.

In

The only other subject of any interest which occupied the attention of the Cortes, was the actual situation of Portugal in relation to foreign powers. Since the revolution, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, had discontinued all diplomatic relations with Portugal; and there was every reason to anticipate, that an attempt would be made to overthrow the present order of things in Spain. A proposal had therefore been made to raise the army to the establishment of 1814, so as to be able to take the field at the earliest notice. But the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a report made to the Cortes on this subject, stated that the proposed measure had been rendered unnecessary by the positive assurance given by Great Britain, that the change

which had taken place in the Government of Portugal had in no degree affected the validity of the treaties previously subsisting between the two countries; that should the independence of the latter be menaced by any power whatever, the former considered itself bound to afford it every assistance of which it might stand in need; and that this was only a repetition of former promises made in other terms, and at different periods. At the same time, he mentioned, that in answer to representations on the part of Portugal, France had positively disavowed all intention to interfere à main armée in the internal affairs or political institutions of the Peninsula; but that, observing the continued preparations of the French army, and the succours afforded to the factious, indisputable proofs of the most hostile intentions, the Portuguese Government had not hesitated a moment in acceding to the proposal of Spain, for entering into a treaty of defensive alliance against all aggression which had for its object to

subvert the existing political institutions of the two nations.

The frank and friendly declaration of Great Britain, at this critical moment, was undoubtedly calculated to inspire the Constitutionalists with confidence, as far as that could be effected, by removing all dread of foreign aggres

sion.

But they had difficulties of a more formidable nature to struggle with. The state of the finances, already bad, became daily worse; the Government had neither resources nor credit; the interest of the public debt was unpaid, commerce had been annihilated, agriculture languished, industry had received a mortal blow by the separation of the Brazils, and a scarcity of corn began to be felt. The army was ill-paid and discontented, the people ignorant, superstitious, and incapable of the energy necessary for the support of a free Government, and the Ministry distrustful and discouraged. In a word, the revolution had not yet rooted itself in the Portugueze soil.

THE affairs of Germany, during the present year, present little deserving the notice of history. The Diet, which assembled on the 11th of January, and continued its sittings till the 11th of July, was almost exclusively occupied with the discussion of the last five sections of the military constitution of the Germanic Confederation. These sections, particularly the articles relative to the organisation of the federal army, were understood to have met with considerable opposition on the part of Austria; which is rendered extremely probable by the circumstance, that this part of the constitution conferred very extensive powers on the Generalissimo, who, in the event of the assembling of that army, was to be named by the Diet, made responsible to it alone for his operations, and therefore placed in a situation of greater independence than consisted with the usual selfish, arrogating, and jealous policy of the

Austrian Cabinet. The only other subject which occupied the attention of the Diet, the cumbrous formality and slowness of whose proceedings are proverbial, were several new reports from the central commission of Mayence, (which had previously made no less than thirty-two,) on the political state of Germany. It is well known that this commission had been appointed for the purpose of watching the progress of liberal opinions in Germany, and of recommending, from time to time, to the Diet, such measures as they should deem most likely to prove effectual for the more complete subjugation of the public press, and the extinction of all political associations and political discussions. In this truly legitimate vocation, they laboured with the plodding perseverance of their country; and it must be admitted that the principles of absolute and unmitigated despotism were never exhibited in a more naked